Gotán

“Tango can be discussed, and we discuss it, but it encloses, as everything that is true, a secret…a French or Spanish composer who threads a tango, discovers, not without surprise, he has threaded something that our ears do not recognize, that our memory does not host, and that our body rejects it could be said that without the sunsets and evenings of Buenos Aires no tango can be made…and that this adventurous species has, however humble, its place on the universe” (Borges in Gomez, 2007/trans. A. Michalko).

Since the 1930s, musicologists and dance specialists have tried to reconstruct and ‘put some systematic order’ into tango origins (Savigliano, 1995). The search for Argentinean tango’s beginnings and authenticity raised many discussions as some historians attribute it to African population connecting it to their rituals and music traditions; others seek its origins in the art of payadores (singers and guitar players from the inside of the country); and some in the arrival of European immigrants at the end of 19th century. The matter of which one of these groups is more entitled to tango will not be discussed here. Instead, I would like to explore and compare the style of two iconic tango orchestras: Orquesta de Francisco Canaro and Orquesta de Anibal Troilo. The orchestra of Canaro was active mostly between 1920-1940s and orchestra of Troilo after 1940s. One remarkable differance is that Canaro performed mostly with female singers whereas Troilo with male tangueros. I will analyze their dyscographies in order to find some other differances and similarities between them. Perhaps, this analyisis will reveal some secrets of tango.

Corpus

The Corpus consists of tango songs performed by Ada Falcon and Tita Merello. On basis of their dyscographies and recordings, I will search for similarities and differences between those two tango orchestras. The corpus consists of 608 tracks (304 performed by Orquesta de Canaro and 304 by de Orquesta de Troilo).

References: Gobello, J. (1980). Crónica general del tango (No. 78 (091)). Fraterna. Gomez, A. (2009). Ultimo patio. Turmalina. Savigliano, M. (1995). Tango and the political economy of passion. Westview Press.

Tango means {data-width= 100, data-height=100 .storyboard}

Commentary {data-width = 100,data-height = 100, .storyboard}

The comparison of interdependencies among various audio features did not demonstrate that the recordings of two orchestras would follow individual/peculiar patterns. On contrary, in those three scatterplots, the orchestras seem to follow similar patterns. Perhaps, more detailed analysis of particular songs will reveal more differances between those tango orchestras. For instance, analysis of the same tango song.

Troilo

Orquesta de Troilo

Canaro

Orquesta de Canaro

text

Both chromagrams illustrate tango song Silbando. The first is a version of Troilo orchestra and the second one of Canaro. The Spotify features clasify a key mode of both versions as D major. However, the A sections of the song are in d minor and B sections are in D major. Both chromagrams suggest a presence of rich harmony in two versions, especially chroma features of Canaro show a presence of almost all 12 tones throughout all the song (with exception of B and Bb). In Troilo’s version we can see better the predominance of A, G and D. It is not surprising as d/D is a Tonic, G/g a subdominant and A domimnant of d minor and D major.

troilo

Orquesta de Troilo

canaro

Orquesta de Canaro

text

The original structure of the tango song Silbando is: Intro A A’ B B’ B’(whistling) A A’ B B’ B’(whistling). The versions of Troilo and Canaro vary substantially in structure, but also in the songs’ instrumentations. Silbando of Troilo has a structure of B B’ A A’ B’’ B’’’ A’’ A’’’ B’’’’ and has lots of timbre changes. Although, the piece was originally written for a singer and piano/orchestra, this version is instrumental. It starts with soft whistling accompanied by a guitar. In the next section clearly visible on the similarity matrix appears another section A’, which is played on accordion and guitar. Interestingly enough, Troilo does not introduce a new instrument in each new section. Instead, he makes new combinations of the same instruments (for instance, accordion + guitar, guitar + double bass, accordion + double bass); manipulates acoustic balance between them (for instance, in B and B’’ we have the same combination of instruments, however in B the accordion is much more salient than a guitar whereas in B’’ they are even); and changes timbre through the usage of various articulations (for, instance pizzicato and bowing on strings) and dynamics. For these reasons, the similarity matrix shows so many timbre novelties (substantial amount of grey/yellow lines throughout the duration of all the piece). Also, the similarity matrix suggests that the very beginning (0-25s) of Troilo’s version has two separate segments, although, it should be treated as one (A). It could be due to the fact that at first we hear only whistling, even though, the guitar comes in before the end of the first “whistling phrase”. We could interpret it as either a Type I Error, or the indication of more detailed structure.

The version of Canaro has a structure: A A’ B B’ A’’ A’’’ B’’ B’’’ B’’’’ A’’’’ A’’’’’. It is more difficult to see this structure on the similarity matrix as it does not have so many remarkable timbre changes as a version of Troilo. In fact, the entrance of the singer in 1:03 is almost not marked/visible on the similarity matrix. The big grey/yellow line around 2:10 signalizes a timbre novelty, which in this case is whistling.